Two weeks before the release of the album in South Korea, 50,000 copies of the regular edition had been pre-ordered and pre-sales for the 99,999 copies of the special edition of The Beginning reached numbers of 400,000 requests.[1][2]

The album was released on November 16, 2010 in the United States as a digital download,[3] however a wider release is planned by the group in early 2011.[4]

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Despite the album being sung in English, Jaejoong and Junsu were not fluent in English at the time of recording, and were still attending English lessons at the time of the album's release in America.[5]

The first single from the album was "Ayyy Girl," featuring Kanye West and Malik Yusef.[6] The song had moderate success in South Korea, peaking at No. 19 on Gaon's single charts.[7] The music video for the album's second single, "Empty," was shot in December.[5] The song debuted at No. 18 in Korea during the album's release, due to strong digital sales.[7]

The band toured Asia in October and November 2010 in promotion of the album.[8] This began with two showcases in Seoul on October 12, at the 11,000 seating Hwaseong Tiger Dome at Korea University.[9] The tickets for these events sold out in 15 minutes, and a portion of the profits was donated to World Vision.[1][10] The band planned concerts in the United States in New York Las Vegas and Los Angeles, however were denied P1 visas for these concerts. In response to this, the group performed free showcases on these dates and refunded ticket purchasers. JYJ's management, C-JeS Entertainment, was unsure of the reason for the visa denial.[11] The band's other planned US dates in Seattle, San Francisco and Hawaii were later cancelled.[12] 6,400 people attended the New York showcase, despite the venue being able to hold 3,400 people.[13]

The band was featured in Billboard magazine's release of the week in November, the first time an international act has been featured. This led to the magazine's website receiving its highest daily traffic day recorded, as of 2010.[14]

The band members' previous record label as the band TVXQ, SM Entertainment, filed an injunction against the sales of the album on October 8.[9][15] However, South Korean digital retailers defied the request, and proceeded with the sales on October 14.[15] The injunction was issued due the South Korean courts not having reached a verdict on the members' ongoing court case with SM Entertainment.[9] In December 2010 they were successful in their lawsuit against SM Entertainment.